House Keeping

Luckily, the museum has a talented team of preservationists and craftspeople dedicated to the cause. Below are a selection of projects that are underway on PEM’s campus:

Ropes Mansion (318 Essex Street)
Exterior repairs on the East side of the building and interior paint repairs have been completed, and we welcomed the start of our seasonal self-guided tours.

Cotting-Smith Assembly House (138 Federal Street)
The museum will continue its work designing and replacing a missing balustrade that was  installed above the house’s portico and removed in the early 20th century. How do we know about it? This detail was almost lost to history, but appears in two historic photographs in PEM’s collection.

Peirce-Nichols House (80 Federal Street)
The re-roofing project is nearly complete, and we are preparing to install newly cast reproduction balustrades. 

Crowninshield-Bentley House (126 Essex Street)
Estimates are now complete for a new roof replacement coming in 2026.

Gardner-Pingree House (128 Essex Street)
Varnish touchups to the doors are currently underway this winter, and all of the ceilings in the home have now been repaired and repainted. 

John Ward House (9 Brown Street)
A casement window restoration project was completed and all four of the remaining restored windows have now been installed.

Andrew-Safford House (13 Washington Square)
With the reinstallation of the last of the restored shutters, the front facade of the house is now complete.

Yin Yu Tang (161 Essex Street)
Yin Yu Tang is currently undergoing work to preserve its roof tiles and masonry walls. During your visit, scaffolding may be present and work may be actively underway. Please note that the house may be intermittently closed to enable this important preservation work. Thank you in advance for your understanding. 

ABOVE IMAGE: Crowninshield-Bentley House, West Parlor. Peabody Essex Museum. Photo by Kathy Tarantola/PEM.